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31.
January 20th, 1914
Dear Mr. Joyce,
I do not gather from your preface to "Dubliners" or from any of your letters whether the book as it now stands in type has been altered to meet any of the objections of its critics, or whether it is now in is original form as it was first offered to me or in some other form of which you approve. And will you let me hear from you also on the following points:—
- 1. Do you insist on the printing of the Preface?
- 2. Are you still willing, under protest, to allow any very slight alterations in the text? (I am not at all sure that I am going to suggest any).
- 3. Is there any possibility of any person, or restaurant, or public-house, or anything of the kind, feeling, if the book is published, that there is ground for a suit against the publisher for libel?
- 4. Would you have any objection to an introduction being written to the book by some well known literary man? Sincerely yours,
154
Joyce replied immediately, expressing willingness to have his
preface replaced by an introduction, rejecting the possibility of the book
resulting in any legal action, and suggesting that, under the circumstances,
alterations in the text had better be waived. He offered to take 120 copies
of the book at trade price for sale in Trieste.
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